I successfully updated to the latest cont-tem zip but it wasn't easy. Karl Berry suggested the following: cd $TMPDIR dir=`pwd` wget http://www.pragma-ade.com/context/current/cont-tmf.zip cd /wherever/texmf-dist unzip -t $dir/cont-tmf.zip >/tmp/z unzip -q $dir/cont-tmf.zip rm web2c/natural.tcx mv web2c/context.cnf ../texmf/web2c # [stuff to update the repository] I did the above with embellishments. Since I have had continual trouble, even when I reloaded texlive 2005, I started with a new partition (Slackware 10.2) and a fresh texLIve installation. I followed the Berry routine. At the end I did: texhash fmtutil --all texhash (One cannot do texhash too often.) I tested this on a known file and it worked. Now I went to my production partition, wiped out the "2005" directory and copied the 2005 directory from my test partition. After the usual texhash and fmtutil bowing and scraping I now have an up-to-date context installation that seems to work OK. Now for the question: When I process a tex file with texexec I get a pdf file and a warnig message that says "warning use tekmfstart texecec instead." Well the bare texexec seems to work OK but the command; texmfstart texexec book.tex exits immediately with no output. Am I using texmfstart correctly? -- John Culleton Able Indexing and Typesetting Precision typesetting (tm) at reasonable cost. Satisfaction guaranteed. http://wexfordpress.com